Share live streams from two different cities cost effectively with minimal equipment

Waning audience participation in some geographic regions

For the past five years, video production company, Denver Media Center (DMC) has produced live coverage of the Heartland Emmy Award presentations, including pre-show edits and live direction. The Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) incorporates television markets that make up a large swatch of the expansive western U.S - Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Heartland Emmy award galas honor excellent media content and occur simultaneously each year from venues in Denver and Oklahoma City.

The annual award shows had been produced using a TVU One mobile IP transmitter from the Denver Award location and a TVU Networks' receiver at a simultaneous event in Oklahoma City. This set up allowed attendees at the Oklahoma gala to see what was happening live in Denver, but it didn't allow Denver attendees to see any of the red carpet action or award winners in Oklahoma.

With such a large geographic area, this chapter's participation in most of the areas outside Colorado had been waning. Many of the Oklahoma stations hadn't attend the ceremony in their region or submit their work for award consideration in recent years. Producers at DMC wanted to create additional excitement around the galas and increase engagement with its Oklahoma members.

To make new shows more dynamic and reach out to its Oklahoma base, DMC wanted the live event to reflect the dual-location nature of the gala with real-time live feeds from each location.

Solution:

Using one TVU One with HEVC mobile IP transmitter in Denver, one in Oklahoma City, and TVU Receivers in each location, DMC switched coverage of the 2017 Heartland EMMY Chapter galas live between the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver and the Heritage Center in Oklahoma City for air on the chapter's Facebook page using Facebook Live.

DMC covered both galas live, including speeches from award winners and red carpet walks from Oklahoma City using TVU Receivers and a video switcher. The receiver in Oklahoma City took in the master feed from Denver. Using the TVU One transmitters, feeds from both locations were distributed back and forth for creation of the live master feed, which was switched and streamed to Facebook Live out of Denver.

Currently, the Heartland Emmy's are the only Emmy show that includes multiple locations, even though other TV chapters also cover multiple large cities, particularly in the Western U.S. "We're pioneering this idea of including more than one city in your live Emmy telecast," said DMC Co-owner Nick Arnold. "It's a great model to produce a multi-location event and increase participation. With live feeds that incorporate multiple cities, everyone becomes a part of it, and they get more involved and excited about the event. We can't wait to do the same set up for other events."

Benefits

Benefits

Live feeds from two locations simultaneously created a more dynamic, live show

Viewership on social media rose significantly

Increased membership and award submissions for organization

According to Arnold, "Adding a receiver in both locations and a transmitter in Oklahoma City really opened up the back and forth and created a much more exciting main show."

The amount of views on the Heartland Emmy Facebook page for this year's gala back that up. Arnold reports over 1,000 views on Facebook, which includes a growing number from areas previously not engaged with the event.

"The Heartland Emmy Awards cover a wide section of the country," added Arnold. "But since the Facebook Live stream from both locales this year, we've seen participation rise dramatically from the Oklahoma chapter. The number of people becoming members and submitting work for award consideration has gone from very little to where they're now a huge part of our membership.

"In the west there can be several large TV chapters in one market. This is a great way to get them on board and participate in the Emmy's."

The Heartland Emmy(r) Chapter honors original content created for traditional broadcast/cable mediums as well as non-traditional and emerging platforms for broadband and portable delivery. The Heartland Emmys represent the work of broadcast media in cities including Colorado Springs, Denver and Grand Junction, CO; Cheyenne, WY; Omaha and Lincoln, NE; Topeka and Wichita, KS; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK.

About TVU Networks(r)

TVU Networks(r) is a technology and market leader in IP-based live video solutions. TVU's solutions help transform broadcasters' SDI-based operations - which include acquisition, transmission, routing, distribution and management - to an IP-based infrastructure. TVU(r) serves customers of all sizes in more than 85 countries from industries that include news broadcast, web streaming, law enforcement, sports, corporate and government. In broadcast markets around the world including the USA, China and other major economic powers, TVU(r) is the dominant market leader with a large majority of all news broadcast stations using its IP video solutions. Using its proprietary IS+ technology, TVU's uplink solutions use any combination of cellular, satellite, microwave, WiFi and Ethernet IP connections to deliver live HD video from practically any location.